by Jan Schwartz
Congress has been looking at higher education recently. That pretty much includes all schools that come after the K-12–schools and/or programs that get Federal aid in particular.
Some issues are interesting to follow, such as the Congressional beef with for- profit schools and the disproportionately high amount of Federal dollars their students get when compared to public institutions. But then there are the other issues that affect all schools–in particular the definition of the credit hour. Congress, specifically the House Committee on Education and Labor, thinks it should be measured by the amount of time a butt is in the seat. 
Note that there is no mention of quality or outcomes here, nor how you would figure out how long someone is sitting in front of their computer for an online course. One thing I have discovered in both teaching and monitoring online courses is that a section of work that takes some people 6 hours to do, others can do in two hours. The outcomes are the same. How many of us have sat in a classroom while a teacher tried to explain something 3 different ways so that one student could “get it”? Meantime those of us who did get it have moved on to texting, reading ahead, or taking a short fantasy trip in our heads.
As Sheri Schmeckpeper says in her blog on Center for Teaching Excellence:
Time in a virtual environment is a non-issue. One of the benefits of distance learning is that it is highlighting the flaw in the archaic perspective that sitting in a chair equals quality education. We are finally refocusing our lenses to see that quality education can be measured by the competencies and knowledge gained by the student, regardless of the time spent in a seat or doing homework.
I agree wholeheartedly agree with Sheri. The way we think about education needs to move into the 21st century. In order to do that we need more people thinking outside of the box created generations ago.
Image Credit: velkr0
